Cruising in 2012 for my big 4-0! Which cruise?

[Momto3cuties]

We plan to cruise again in 2012 in celebration of my 40th birthday. We will be bringing our kids along with us and they will be 3, 5, and 7 (possibly 8). I can not decide between a Southern Caribbean cruise or the Med. Will my kids be bored on a Med cruise? Would I be better off doing Disney if we decided on the Med. As for the Southern Caribbean - best time of year? best cruise line for kids?

Any advice or thoughts would be helpful! Thanks!

[cb at sea]

I guess it depends what you want from your vacation. A Caribbean cruise is totally different from a Med. or European cruise.....on the latter, the focus will be the ports and sightseeing. In the Caribbean, it's more "laid-back"...more "do what you want" rather than sightseeing antiquities!

 

The S. Caribbean will be nice and warm all year round, and downright HOT in the summer...I'd try for spring...no threat of hurricanes and it won't be so oppressively hot then.

 

As far as cruiselines...this can depend on your pocketbook! All but the true "luxury" lines have lots for the kids to do....Carnival, RCI, and of course, Disney will have alot of child and family-friendly activities.

 

Sounds like a good travel agent could give you all of the info you need to compare each line/destination. Plus, you'll be given brochures on all the cruiselines...that's 1/2 the fun...checking out the deckplans and info!

[Kerry's Girls]

For the Med (which is what I would choose - but as cb said, it depends on if you want to explore or to relax), I don't think the ship is as important, so I absolutely wouldn't spend the extra money to take a Disney cruise in the Med, and would rather spend the extra money on private tour guides for the best experience possible. For the Med, you spend most of your time either in port or resting up for the port, so you don't spend as much time getting the most out of the ship or the ship activities. For the Med, I would choose any of the lines cb mentioned based on ports you most want to see and budget.

 

I haven't done the Carib yet with kids, so I leave that to the many experts here...

 

Have a great time whichever you choose!

 

Best,

mai

[seashell36]

If I had to choose between those two for a cruise with children that age I'd pick the southern carib. Like cb at sea said, a med cruise is sight seeing intensive - go look, explore, take pictures and on to the next one. I know we've talked about taking a med cruise - but our children want to do the beach, snorkel, sea shell thing. So, we've stuck to the carib cruises.

 

Better than anyone else, you know your children - would they do better just doing trips off the ship to a beach or to see sea turtles, sting rays or dolphins; or would they enjoy going to the various sights that the med cruise stops at? I know the different cruise lines have different ports they stop at in the med - so I'm not sure which ports it would be.

 

As for time choices - if I was going to the southern carib I'd pick winter to early spring, just watch out for the price change when it gets close to spring break. HTH

 

Traci

[chipmaster]

Lots of reasons to cruise and it all depends on what kind of vacation you are looking for.

 

FWIW with kids that age the only reason to do Med is that its a celebration for you and the SO and the kids are along for the ride. There is little they will really enjoy in Europe for the youngest.

 

Carribbean is such a different vacation that all ages will get something out of it whether on Carinval or scaled up to Disney.

 

Celebrate the big 5 0 in Europe with your kids, do the 4 0 with the kids in the carribean, in 20 years you'll be glad you did it that way!

 

We plan to cruise again in 2012 in celebration of my 40th birthday. We will be bringing our kids along with us and they will be 3, 5, and 7 (possibly 8). I can not decide between a Southern Caribbean cruise or the Med. Will my kids be bored on a Med cruise? Would I be better off doing Disney if we decided on the Med. As for the Southern Caribbean - best time of year? best cruise line for kids?

Any advice or thoughts would be helpful! Thanks!

[jam82]

We plan to cruise again in 2012 in celebration of my 40th birthday. We will be bringing our kids along with us and they will be 3, 5, and 7 (possibly 8). I can not decide between a Southern Caribbean cruise or the Med. Will my kids be bored on a Med cruise? Would I be better off doing Disney if we decided on the Med. As for the Southern Caribbean - best time of year? best cruise line for kids?

Any advice or thoughts would be helpful! Thanks!

 

It's YOUR birthday. Do what you want to do. If your kids haven't cruised before, they will be excited with either.

 

I prefer to do the southern carib when it's cold at home.

 

Best cruise line for kids is a very subjective question. It depends what you're looking for. Most people would say Disney, RCCL or Carnival for kids. However, there are other things to consider. If your oldest will still be 7 when you cruise, then both Princess and HAL have the kids club age groups for 3-7 year olds, whereas the other lines have different age groups. So if you want to use the kids club and it's important for you that your kids are together you might want to consider HAL or Princess.

[Momto3cuties]

Thanks for all your thoughts and advice on which cruise to do for my 40th. I was leaning towards the Southern Caribbean, as I figured my kids would not appreciate the Med just yet.

 

We are cruising on RCL's Freedom of the Seas next year (Eastern) so I guess I will see how it goes and decide on a cruise line from there. Will look into HAL and Princess, as it might be nice to have all of my kiddos together in one kids club.

[boulders]

We've done Eastern, Western and Southern Caribbean. By far, my kids loved their Med cruise on Disney the most. We went this past May. The kids were 14, 11 and 5. The five year old loved exploring the ruins of Pompeii, seeing the Colisseum and eating gelato. Disney tailors their shore excursions to the various ages of their passengers. They were much more interesting than other excursions I've seen.

 

As for the expense of Disney, we spent $2200 for the whole 11 night cruise for the 4 of us. Yep, $50 per night per person. It's the cheapest cruise I've ever cruised. For next year, it would be $6K for the 4 of us in a balcony for 7 nights. DCL is no longer as expensive as people seem to think.

[Kerry's Girls]

As for the expense of Disney, we spent $2200 for the whole 11 night cruise for the 4 of us. Yep, $50 per night per person. It's the cheapest cruise I've ever cruised. For next year, it would be $6K for the 4 of us in a balcony for 7 nights. DCL is no longer as expensive as people seem to think.

 

Wow - that is a great value! Consider me corrected - since I'm the one who thought Disney is over-priced (don't you hate when people post and don't know what they're talking about :rolleyes:). I love these boards - I never would have included Disney when pricing out cruises, but now I will. And I agree - Europe is great for young kids.

 

Best,

Mia

[Momto3cuties]

OK, now I am second guessing myself.

 

Boulders - Was the Disney cruise a Kids Sail free? I am getting MUCH higher prices when I price out their Med cruise.

 

Kerry's Girls - How old were your children when you cruised the Med? My oldest would be almost 8 and I think he would like the history aspect of the Med. ports My 5 and 3 year old - well, not sure if they would enjoy or just have a "meltdown". Which cruise line did you go with?

 

I want to do both a Southern and the Med, so I guess I just need to decide which I want to do first.

[boulders]

The Disney Med cruise was a kids sail free. They came out with the deal in November for the following May. Around February/March, they had deals for July and August. They still have a lot of availability for next summer's Med cruises, so maybe there will be another kids sail free promotion. :rolleyes:They haven't released the itineraries for the Magic for summer 2012, so whether or not they go to the Med again is anyone's guess.

[Kerry's Girls]

Kerry's Girls - How old were your children when you cruised the Med? My oldest would be almost 8 and I think he would like the history aspect of the Med. ports My 5 and 3 year old - well, not sure if they would enjoy or just have a "meltdown". Which cruise line did you go with?

 

.

 

My twins turned 5 on our Med cruise. I wouldn't have considered it at that age, except I read an amazing review here by another family who took their young kids and ended up booking the same cruise when it went on sale. I thought it was really magical to see Europe with the kids and they absolutely loved it - if you ask them they'll tell you they'd much rather go there than to Disneyland. I took the good advice I found here to go with private tours (which ironically were less expensive than the ship tours) so we could choose our own itinerary and go at our own pace. I enjoyed a zero-whine vacation (which would not be the case at Disney), but we were there off-season, so we didn't have intense heat or huge crowds, which I'm sure made a big difference.

 

We were on the Norwegian Jade, but I think the ship matters much less on a port intensive cruise as long as there's a kids club so everyone can get a break from each other here and there. NCL with its come-when-you-want meals and casual dress was a good fit for Europe, but I'd choose based on ports and cost. I'm looking at the Baltics next, which I understand is also kid-friendly.

 

Let me know if you have any questions. The only reason our cruise was so successful was all the great advice I found here.

 

Best,

Mia

[Momto3cuties]

Mia - Do you have a link to the review? I would love to read about a famiy sailing the Med with young kids, just to give me an idea on private tours/excursions they might enjoy. Thanks!